The University of Toledo The University of Toledo Digital Repository War Information Center Pamphlets Ward M. Canaday Center: University Archives The Atlantic Charter: The Eight-Point Declaration of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, August 14, 1941 Follow this and additional works at: http://utdr.utoledo.edu/ur-87-68 This Pamphlet is brought to you for free and open access by the Ward M. Canaday Center: University Archives at The University of Toledo Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in War Information Center Pamphlets by an authorized administrator of The University of Toledo Digital Repository. For more information, please see the repository's About page.
Atlantic Cliarter The Eight-Point Declaration PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT and PRIME MINISTER CHURCHILL August 14, 1941 PAMPHLET OFFICE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO MAR 10 1942 COMMISSION TO STUDY THE ORGANIZATION OF PEACE 8 West 40th Street New York, N. Y. December, 1941
Commission to Study the Organization of Peace Chairman JAMES T. SHOTWELL Chairman of Executive Committee WILLIAM ALLAN NEILSON Chairman of Studies Committee CLYDE EAGLETON Chairman of Education Committee EMILY G. HICKMAN Director CLARK M. EICHELBERGER nphe Atlantic Charter states the fundamental principles which the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain hope will guide international policies in the present world crisis: better economic prosperity for all nations; better social justice for all peoples; freedom from fear and want; an end of war and the reign of spiritual force in the councils of the nations of the world. All right-thinking people join with them. The Commission to Study the Organization of Peace echoes their hopes. Its task is to show how they may be realized. Read the analysis of the Atlantic Charter and the parallel passages from the Preliminary Report of the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace. Read also the proposals of the Commission for the realization of these hopes. I. A PLEDGE. The Atlantic Charter Contains 1. (Point 1) The United States and Great Britain seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other. Publications Preliminary Report, November, 1940. A Study of the Organization of Peace (study guide based on the Preliminary Report). November, 1940. 5c. Monographs supporting the Preliminary Report "International Conciliation." April 1941. He. (including postage) Statement of American Proposals for a New World Order. June, 1941. Comment on The Eight-Point Declaration. A study with questions and suggested references. December, 1941. 5c. For additional titles send for our complete literature list. II. III. FEATURES OF A WORLD ORDER. 1. (Point 2) No territorial changes not in accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned. 2. (Point 3) Right of all peoples to choose their form of government. Sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them. 3. (Point 4) Further enjoyment by all states of access on equal terms to the trade and raw materials of the world needed for their economic prosperity. IMPLICATIONS 1. (Point 5) 2. (Point 6) OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION. Fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field to secure for all improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security. An established peace aflfording all nations safety within their own boundaries in freedom from fear and want. 3. (Point 7) An established peace enabling all men to traverse the seas without hindrance. 4. (Point 8) A wider and permanent system of general security guaranteeing the abandonment of the use of force; pending such a system, the disarmament of nations which threaten or may threaten aggression outside of their frontiers. [3]
What the Atlantic Charter Asks What the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace Asks Freer Trade The enjoyment by all states of access on equal terms to the trade and raw materials needed for their economic prosperity. Freer Trade "A world in which human intelligence will organize and distribute the ample resources of nature so that all can live abundantly." "Nations must recognize that their right to regulate economic activities is not unlimited. The world has become an economic unit; all nations must have access to its raw materials and its manufactured articles." Social Justice Improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security for all peoples: freedom from want. Social Jttslice "Man will continue to want from this world freedom, social justice, economic and political security." "If we have the courage to lift our eyes above the agony of the moment we may see a world in which the forces of applied science and the diffusion of knowledge offer to all men and nations a plane of living, a freedom and richness of spiritual, cultural and economic attainment that can scarcely be imagined at the present moment." Safety Nations dwelling in safety within their own boundaries in freedom from fear. Safety "An assurance of the security of all (nations) through regional and world-wide forces subject to international law and adequate to prevent illegal resorts to international violence." End of War Abandonment of force by all nations for spiritual reasons as well as for practical ends. The disarmament of nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression. The lightening for peace-loving peoples of the crushing burden of armament. End of War "Nations must renounce the use of force for their own purposes in relations with other nations, except in selfdefense. The justification for self-defense must always be subject to review by an international court or other competent body." "The right of nations to maintain aggressive armaments must be sacrificed in consideration for an assurance of the security of all through regional and world-wide forces subject to international law and adequate to prevent illegal resorts to international violence." How Gain These? By an established peace. None of them is possible if nations are permitted the use of force. How Gain These? "We must not only combat aggression; we must also plan for peace." "Peace must be a dynamic and continuous process for the achievement of freedom, justice, progress, and security on a world-wide scale." "Peace requires the substitution for war, which becomes ever more destructive, of international processes v/hich while protecting national ways of life against external violence, will facilitate adaptation to new conditions and will promote creative changes in the general interest." [4] [5]
Vrhat International is Indicated? What the Atlantic Charter Asks The fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field. establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security. What the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace Asks ""ORGANIZATION BY CONSENT": ""This implies a society in which nations participate through law to maintain the necessary curbs upon national sovereignty and to estab- lish international institutions to preserve human freedom, social justice, economic progress, and political security." What International Collaboration is Indicated? LIMITATIONS ON SOVEREIGNTY: (a) "'Nations must renounce the claim to be the final judge in their controversies with other nations and must submit to the jurisdiction of international tribunals." (b) (c) ""Nations must renounce the use of force for their own purposes in relations with other nations, except in self-defense." ""The right of nations to maintain aggressive armaments must be sacrificed in consideration for an assurance of the security of all." (d) '"Nations must accept certain human and cultural rights in their constitutions and in international covenants. The destruction of civil liberties anywhere creates danger of war." (e) ""Nations must recognize that their right to regulate economic activities is not unhmited." INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: "'International organizations must be created or developed from past experience." The following are essential: (a) (b) (c) (d) "An international court with jurisdiction adequate to deal with all international disputes on the basis of law." ""International legislative bodies to remedy abuses in existing law and to make new law whenever technical progress requires the adjustment of international practices." ""Adequate police forces, world-wide or regional, and world-wide economic sanctions, to prevent aggression and to support international covenants." "International machinery with authority to regulate international communication and transportation and to deal with such problems as international commerce, finance, health, nutrition, and labor standards." (e) ""Appropriate authorities to administer backward areas ceded to the world federation." [6} [7}
_ Text of the Atlantic Charter The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing his Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world. FIRST: Their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other. SECOND: They desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned. THIRD: They respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them. FOURTH: They will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity. FIFTH: They desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security. SIXTH: After the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want. SEVENTH: Such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance. EIGHTH: They believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measures which will lighten for peaceloving peoples the crushing burden of armaments. ^» " [ 8 ]